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[SCT]

"An AirForce pilot with 300 hours is 100 times better than an rj pilot with 10000".....Super

That is a pretty bold statement, Super.

 

[AerroMatt]

Case-in-point...A friend of mine was hired last month to sit right seat in a CRJ. His totals were 300 hours including 23 multi. Pay = $15/hr.

15 Bucks an Hour to fly a 25 million dollar airliner with 50-90 paying passengers? Wish I could say YGBSM on this one! Now I understand his desire to fly heavy iron, but why on earth do it for peanuts? Who's paying his bills, Mom and Dad? That's way below a living wage. I'm certain he qualifies for food stamps. Harrumph!

 

[Murdoughnut]

People in the Military are smarter and more fit than 90% of the population. An AirForce pilot with 300 hours is 100 times better than an rj pilot with 10000

Pretty strong generalization. I have two graduate degrees and have been teaching college since I was 21, but I still took off on a hot Florida day with the carb heat on by mistake. A large buddy next to me and we'd both be dead. I think there's something to be said for experience over mere intelligence (or fisique).

 

[Gorilla]

Argh, here we go again.

One of my AT-38B sorties in the Air Force, when I instructed at Fighter Lead-in training way back when, consisted of the following:

- Roughly 2 hour brief, where the flight and the objectives are thoroughly covered.
- Parachute, suit up, formation start-up and taxi
- formation TO in burner, or a staggered TO followed by a formation rejoin
- Fingertip, route, and/or tactical formations + turns out to the area
- 4G guns tracking exercise for both AC
- Close, medium, and long range perch offensive and defensive BFM setups, almost continual afterburner use, 7G
- Formation rejoin; FENCE out, damage check, which is a formation visual inspection of both AC for any visual problems
- Fingertip, route, tactical formations back to base
- Initial at 300-450 knots, pitch out, low approach, go around as fuel permits with a closed pattern, then full stop.
- 2 hour debrief

Time: 50 minutes to 1 hour max of flying

Here is the other side, let's say an RJ flight from DFW to Oklahoma City
-Show up, get coffee, program the FMS
-taxi for 15 minutes
- TO, follow the pretty magenta line. AP on
- drone
- drone
- drone; AP off
- Gear down, flaps down, land
- 15 minute taxi in; wait for gate, kick feet up on panel and complain
- Go on to next flight

My whole point with this ridiculous exercise is to demonstrate that the military flyer packs a LOT of very challenging and technical flying into a very short time frame, including multiple approaches. No autopilot. Very little droning along. Taxi time is not included, all military time is TO to land. It took me over three years to barely get 700 hours and that was doing it full time.

I have never maintained one group is any better than the other. I will always maintain that a fighter guy gets a LOT of intense flying done at all extremes of AOA, and many more landing cycles, than his civilian counterpart, in a similar timeframe.

In the military, a C-141 guy with 3000 hours was seen as an experienced heavy driver. A fighter guy with 1200 hours, also experienced. Let it go. Don't begrudge the fighter guy with 1000 hours his hiring. Both groups bring unique skills to the table. Peace.

 

[Andy Neill]

Navy fighter pilots are making their first carrier landings with around 250 hours. Single pilot. Not sure what the Air Force program is.

They (USAF) don't do the carrier landings till MUUUCHH later.

 

[jbDC9]

Harrumph!

"I didn't get a harrumph outta that guy..."

"Give the Governor a harrumph!"

But seriously, with 300 TT and 23 ME, that dude's not even qualified to be a CFI, what a joke.

 

[PDH]

We were all 300 hour wonder pilots at one point. Don't you remember?

Yep, but not while flying your wife and kids around.

 

[AerroMatt]

"I didn't get a harrumph outta that guy..."

"Give the Governor a harrumph!"

But seriously, with 300 TT and 23 ME, that dude's not even qualified to be a CFI, what a joke.

Hehe, I love Blazing Saddles!

Question is, would you want to ride in the back of a CRJ being flown by an FO with 300TT and 23 ME? I for one wouldn't want to period, and I sure hope the FA's pass out barf bags to all pax, cause its gonna be a roller coaster ride once the autopilot goes off.

 

[con-pilot]

If no one else will say it Gorilla I will, excellent post.

I have flown with mix of all civilian and straight out of the military pilots in my career. Some of the worse pilots I have ever flown with have been military and some of the best pilots I have flown with have been military pilots and vice a versa.

However, bottom line is that a 300 hour military pilot is usually highly superior to a 300 hour civilian pilot. Now that being said when these fictional pilots reach 5 to 6,000 hours there is little or no difference in ability.



(But I have to say I did fly with two military pilots, one Air Force (KC-135) the other Navy (P-3), that I never could figure out how they made it through flight training.)

 

[sqwkvfr]

Let mesa put that in their advertising.....

A friend who works for MESA told me that they recieved a grand total of 17 pilot applications last month.

 

[Trogdor]

The word is out about

My
Employer
Sucks
A$$

 

[CherryBomb]

Ive commented about low time pilots sholdnt be flying pax, problem is I did it in the regional board, HA! Boy did I get b!tched at!!

You just cant compare to low time civy pilots to low time military pilots. Selection aside, It would be like saying the Mesa Pilot Development Program is as good of training as the YEARS military folks get... HA HA HA HA

 

[IP076]

Question is, would you want to ride in the back of a CRJ being flown by an FO with 300TT and 23 ME? I for one wouldn't want to period, and I sure hope the FA's pass out barf bags to all pax, cause its gonna be a roller coaster ride once the autopilot goes off.

I personally think this is yet another dumb comment. Like you would even know how many hours the FO has...I bet you dont go to the cockpit and ask everytime.

And don't say you avoid airlines that hire low time guys...because if they're flying an RJ, they hire low time guys. Not saying anything other than most regional airlines have a way of hiring some low time guys, internships, bridge program, internal rec, whatever.

Point being, that 300 hour FO passed the same initial Indoc, Systems, Simulator, and IOE training that the 1200 hour guy did.

I don't think most people expect an FO to be "Most" experienced. Part of the job of a Captain is to provide a new FO with information, and experiences.

Point 2: I'll fly on a Regional Jet and not worry a bit about this, what I'll worry about is how gosh darn uncomfortable the dang seats are!

Oh yeah, like I mentioned somewhere on here before...can we please stop beating the horse, he's already dead.

 

[DX Rick]

15 Bucks an Hour to fly a 25 million dollar airliner with 50-90 paying passengers? Wish I could say YGBSM on this one! Now I understand his desire to fly heavy iron, but why on earth do it for peanuts? Who's paying his bills, Mom and Dad? That's way below a living wage. I'm certain he qualifies for food stamps. Harrumph!

So it's ok for a guy with high time to go to a regional and accept those crap wages?
If they're going to pay garbage wages, let the kid go in there, build his time and move onto a NetJets, CS or Flight Options where he can actually earn a living.

 

[SIG600]

So it's ok for a guy with high time to go to a regional and accept those crap wages?
If they're going to pay garbage wages, let the kid go in there, build his time and move onto a NetJets, CS or Flight Options where he can actually earn a living.

Or have a higher expectation of what you're worth, and stop working for these bullsh1t wages.